Islamic Responses: Sayings of Mansur Al-Hallaj

Sayings of Mansur Al-Hallaj

I continued to float on the sea of love,

One surging wave lifting me up, another pulling me down;

And so I went on, now rising, now falling,

Till I found myself in the middle of the deep sea,

Brought by love to a point where there was no shore.

In alarm I called out to Him whose name I would not reveal,

One to whose love I have never been untrue:

‘Your rule is indeed just,’ I said, ‘Your fair dealings I am ready to defend with my very life;

But this is not in the terms of your covenant.’

(Diwan, 70)

Painful enough it is that I am ever calling out to You,

As if I were far away from You or You were absent from me,

And that I constantly ask for Your grace, yet unaware of the need.

Never before have I seen such an ascetic so full of desire.

(Diwan, 44)

Your place in my heart is the whole of my heart,

For your place cannot be taken by anyone else.

My soul has lodged You between my skin and my bones,

So what would I do were I ever to lose You?

(Diwan, 71)

My host, who can never be accused of even the slightest wrong,

Made me share his drink, as a perfect host should do.

But when signs of my drunkenness became clear,

He suddenly called to His headsman to bring the sword and the mat.

This is the end of keeping company with the Dragon and drinking with Him in the summer season.

(Diwan, 73)

I am He whom I love and He whom I love is I;

We are two souls dwelling in one body.

When you look at me you can see Him,

And you can see us both when you look at Him.

(Diwan, 93)

You who blame me for my love for Him,

If only you knew Him of whom I sing, you would cease your blame.

Other men go away for their pilgrimage, but my own pilgrimage is towards the place where I am.

Other men offer sacrifices, but my sacrifice is my own heart and blood.

They physically circumambulate the temple,

But were they to proceed reverently around God Himself,

They would not need to go round a sacred building.

(Diwan, 85)

I swear to God, the sun has never risen or set without Your love being the twin of my breath;

Neither have I confided in anyone except to talk about You.

Never have I mentioned Your name in gladness or in sorrow,

Unless You were in my heart, wedged in my obsessive thoughts.

Nor have I touched water to quench my thirst without seeing Your image in the glass.

Were it possible for me to reach You I would come to you at once, crawling on my face or walking on my head.

I say to our minstrel that if he is to sing he should choose for this theme my grief at the hardness of Your heart.

What cause have foolish people to blame me? They have their own faith and I have mine.

(Diwan, 67)

I lament before Thee the souls whose witness is

Swept into the great Beyond, witness of Eternity.

I lament before Thee the hearts which for so long

The waves of revelation, the seas of wisdom, have washed over.

I lament before Thee the word of Truth, which since long ago

Has perished, whose memory in the mind is as nothing.

I lament before Thee the discourse

The sayings of every eloquent orator and wise man.

I lament before Thee the wonders of minds together

Of which nothing remains but rubbed-out traces.

I lament – I swear by Thy Love – the virtues of each troop

Whose mounts were but the sadness of anger.

All have passed away; nor vestige, nor trace remains;

Such was ‘Ad, and the going of the people of Iram.

They left behind them a people clothed like them,

More blind than the beasts, more blind even than the camel.

I have a dear friend whom I visit in the solitary places;

He is at the same time present and absent to one’s glances.

You do not see me attentive to him with the ear,

Listening to hear the words which he says.

His words are without vowels or utterance

Or the inflection of voices.

It is as though I were the speaker,

Speaking to my essence by the idea which springs from my essence.

He is present and absent, he is near and far.

The description by divine attributes cannot contain Him.

He is closer than is the imagination to the innermost mind,

More hidden than the flash of a hidden thought.

Thou who blamest me for my desire of Him, how great is your blame!

If only you knew Him of whom I speak you would not blame me.

Other men have their pilgrimage, and I have a pilgrimage towards my Host;

They immolate their sacrifices, I offer my heart and my blood.

There are some men (the mystics) who make the circumambulation, but not with their limbs;

They circumambulate around God, who frees them from the sacred Ka’ba.

[Note: this is another translation of poem 6 above]

Ah! Is it I or Thou? That would constitute two Gods.

Far from me! Far be it from me to affirm two gods!

Thou hast a “He-ness” which is contained in my “no” for ever,

My whole, in all things, is clothed with a dual aspect.

Where then is Thy essence, outside me, where I may gaze upon it?

My essence has become apparent (in a place) where there is no “where”.

Where is Thy visage, object of my searches:

In the regard of the heart, or in the regard of the eye?

Between Thee and me there is an “I” which oppresses me;

Then take away by Thy “Thou” the “I” which is between us.

"On the roof, under His moon and exploding stars,
Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, by turns, through reunions and abandons.
And now I am Yourself, Your existence is my own, and it is also my will.
Mansur al-Hallaj, Diwan al-Hallaj

"I am He Whom I love, and He Whom I love is I.
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.
If you see me, you see Him;
And if you see Him, you see us both."

"I saw my Lord with the Eye of my heart,
And I said: Truly there is no doubt that it is You.
It is You that I see in everything;
And I do not see You through anything (but You).
You are the One Who owns all places.
And yet no place is You.
And if there were a place given by You for the place,
That place would know where You are.
And if there were an imagination for the imagining of You.
That imagination would know where You are.
I understand everything, and everything that I see
In my annihilation is You.
My Lord, bless me and forgive me,
For I seek no one but You."

"The long-awaited revealing of a well-kept secret
is becoming clear to you.
A dawn is breaking on your darkness.
Your own heart is the veil covering the Secret.
If you had kept yourself
He would not have been revealed to you.
But when you destroy your own heart
He enters it and discloses His holy revelation.
So, guarded by this revelation,
an ever-nourishing dialogue will follow
Its verse and prose delicious to Us both."

"There is no longer between me and the Truth (al-haqq),
Explanation, nor proof, nor signs to convince me.
Here shines out the vision of God, like a flame
Resplendent in its dazzling sovereignty.
Only he knows God to whom He makes Himself known.
The ephemeral, which passes away with time,
Cannot know what is Eternal
So that the Creator can no longer be removed
From what He has created.
Do you not see this temporal being turned away from Him
For the remainder of time?
The proof is His, from Him, towards Him
And in Him the Witness itself,
Of the Reality in a revelation,
Which distinguishes the good from the evil.
His is the proof, from Him, in Him and for Him.
In truth we have found It,
Even as a science in Its outer manifestation.
Such is my existence, my evidence and my conviction.
Such is the Oneness of my proclaiming His Unity, my belief!
Thus do those express themselves who are One in Him,
And who know Him, in secret and in public.
This is the summit of existence of those
Who are intoxicated by Allah, the sons of the People of God, The companions of my soul!"

(Passage from Diwan)

You know and are not known; You see and are not seen.
(Akhbar al-Hallaj 44, 1.4)

Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, by turns, through reunions and abandons.
And now I am Yourself, Your existence is my own, and it is also my will.
(Diwan al-Hallaj)

I find it strange that the divine whole can be borne by my little human part,
Yet due to my little part's burden, the earth cannot sustain me.
(Akhbar al-Hallaj, 11)

I have seen my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: "Who are You?" He said:"You."
(Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 10)

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.
(Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 34)

"Before" does not outstrip Him,
"after" does not interrupt Him
"of" does not vie with Him for precedence
"from" does not accord with Him
"to" does not join with Him
"in" does not inhabit Him
"when" does not stop Him
"if" does not consult with Him
"over" does not overshadow
Him "under" does not support Him
"opposite" does not face Him
"with" does not press Him
"behind" does not limit Him
"previous" does not display Him
"after" does not cause Him to pass away
"all" does not unite Him
"is" does not bring Him into being
"is not" does not deprive Him from Being.
Concealment does not veil Him
His pre-existence preceded time,
His being preceded non-being,
His eternity preceded limit.
If thou sayest 'when',
His existing has outstripped time;
If thou sayest 'before', before is after Him;
If thou sayest 'he', 'h' and 'e' are His creation;
If thou sayest 'how', His essence is veiled from description;
If thou sayest 'where', His being preceded space;
If thou sayest 'ipseity' (ma huwa),
His ipseity (huwiwah) is apart from things.
Other than He cannot
be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at
one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition.
He is hidden in His manifestation,
manifest in His concealing.
He is outward and inward,
near and far; and in this respect He is
removed beyond the resemblance of creation.
He acts without contact,
instructs without meeting,
guides without pointing.
Desires do not conflict with Him,
thoughts do not mingle with Him:
His essence is without qualification (takyeef),
His action without effort (takleef).

The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup. Allah is He Who flows between the pericardium and the heart, just as the tears flow from the eyelids.

God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes. If He Himself affirms His unity by my tongue, it is He and His affair. Otherwise, brother, I have nothing to do with affirming God's Unity.

Love is in the pleasure of possession, but in the Love of Allah there is no pleasure of possession, because the stations of the Reality are wonderment, the cancelling of the debt which is owed, and the blinding of vision. The Love of the human being for God is a reverence which penetrates the very depths of his being, and which is not permitted to be given except to Allah alone. The Love of Allah for the human being is that He Himself gives proof of Himself, not revealing Himself to anything that is not He.

In the Name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate, Who manifests Himself through everything, the revelation of a clear knowing to whomsoever He wishes, peace be upon you, my son. This praise belongs to Allah Who manifests Himself on the head of a pin to whom He wishes, so that one testifies that He is not, and another testifies that there is none other than He. But the witnessing in the denying of Him is not rejected, and the witnessing in the affirming of Him is not praised.

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

I saw my Lord with the Eye of my heart,
And I said: Truly there is no doubt that it is You.
It is You that I see in everything;
And I do not see You through anything (but You).

How can the outpouring of the divine essence flowing out of the essence give you the experience of the essence?...Henceforth there is no need for proof in order to grasp thy reality.

Other than He cannot be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition. He is hidden in His manifestation, manifest in His concealing.

Concealment does not veil Him
His pre-existence preceded time,
His being preceded not-being,
His eternity preceded limit.

He acts without contact,
instructs without meeting,
guides without pointing.
Desires do not conflict with Him,
thoughts do not mingle with Him:
His essence is without qualification,
His action without effort.

I am the Truth.

Oh you who have been removed from God in his solitude by the abyss of time, how can you expect to reach him without dying?

My heart has eyes that see only for you, and it is completely in your hands.

“For your sake, I hurry over land and water;
For your sake, I cross the desert and split the mountain in two,
And I turn my face from all things,
Until the time I reach the place
Where I am alone with you.”

“What earth is this
so in want of you
they rise up on high
to seek you in heaven?
Look at them staring
at you
right before their eyes,
unseeing, unseeing, blind.”

“Creatures perish
in the darkened
blind of quest,
knowing intimations.
Guessing and dreaming
they pursue the real,
faces turned toward the sky
whispering secrets to the heavens.
While the lord remains among them
in every turn of time
abiding in their every condition
every instant.
Never without him, they,
not for the blink of an eye --
if only they knew!
nor he for a moment without them.”

I am the One whom I love, and the One whom I love is myself.
We are two souls incarnated in one body;
if you see me, you see Him,
if you see Him, you see us.

Before put to death, Hallaj said:

Now stands no more between Truth and me

Or reasoned demonstration,

Or proof of revelation;

Now, brightly blazing full, Truth’s lumination

Each flickering, lesser light.

In the early morning hour,

Just before dawn, lover and beloved wake

And take a drink of water.

She asks, “Do you love me or yourself more?

Really, tell the absolute truth.”

He says, “There’s nothing left of me.

I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world

Made of redness? It has no resistance

To sunlight.”

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love,

Rising with the wave, then descending;

Now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it;

Love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

(Diwan, 34)

To meet You I look at face after face,
appearances after appearances..
To see Your face
I pass by
Like the morning wind.

Al-Hallaj was walking one day with al-Makki, when al-Makki began to recite the Qur’an. Hallaj listened to him, and then said, “I could compose the like of that,” whereupon al-Makki cursed him and refused to see him again.

Hallaj himself said he had heard Muhammad’s (saw) saying, “The men who have suffered most have been the prophets; then the saints; I wish to suffer with them.”

About 294 A.H., Hallaj made a third pilgrimage to Mecca, where he spent two years in solitude. It seems that it was there he became conscious of drawing to the end of the perfect life and the goal of mystical theology. He prays during his last night-watch as follows: “It is Thou who hast assigned to this actual witness of Thy divine Essence a certain ipseity, so that he can speak of Thee in the first person...and it is Thou who hast taken my essence to serve Thee as a symbol amongst men – when, while I am manifested in the last of my states, Thou hast come to use it to proclaim my Essence through my essence.”

On Mount Ararat, Hallaj offered a prayer on his last pilgrimage before the assembled pilgrims:

“O Glorious King, I know Thee to be transcendent, I acclaim Thee above all the tasabih of those who have cried, ‘Glory to Thee,’ above all the tahalil of those who have declared ‘There is no God but the God,’ above all the concepts of those who have conceived of Thee! O my God, Thou knowest me to be powerless to offer to Thee the offering of thanks which is Thy due. Come then into me, Thyself to thank Thyself. That is the true offering of thanks, there is none other.”

“Glory to God who revealed in His humanity the secret of His radiant beauty,

And then appeared to His creatures in the shape of one who eats and drinks.”

When the case was made against Al-Hallaj and he was tried in court, his house was searched and a notebook was found of his in which it was written:

“A man, when he wishes to accomplish the legal pilgrimage, has the right to install himself in a part of his house, to set up a mihrab under certain conditions enumerated, to purify himself, to put on the pilgrimage garb, to say this, do that, pray thus, recite such and such a portion of the Qur’an, proceed in this part of his house in such and such a manner, pronounce the Subhan Allah according to a certain fashion, accompanying it with certain pious actions; all this, when accomplished, dispenses him from the legal obligation of the pilgrimage to the Sacred House of God.”

Ibn ‘Ayyash, the recorder of this story, adds that one of the leaders of the sect of the Hallajiya told him that Hallaj had told it to him as a tradition which he had received from the ‘Alids, and that among them this rule does not dispense on all occasions from making the pilgrimage, but it is only a substitute for it when a man cannot make the journey owing to poverty, some impediment or sickness. Moreover Hallaj himself, when questioned, declared it was only a tradition which he had reported it as he had heard it.

When the night came, on the morrow of which Hallaj was to be put to death, he arose to pray the appointed prayers. His prayer finished, he ceased not to repeat makr, makr (the ruse according to the Qur’an, employed by God to deceive Satan, and to make Jews and Christians believe that He had allowed Jesus really to be crucified). Then after the greater part of the night had elapsed and he had remained silent a long time he cried, “It is true! It is true!” (that he would be executed) and he got up, dressed in order to be ready, extended his hands, his face turned in the direction of the Kaaba, and spoke aloud. Of what he said the following is part: “We are here to serve Thee as a witness. It is in Thy grace that we come to seek for refuge, and in the splendor of Thy glory to seek for light; so that Thou mayest make to appear that which Thou wishest, in Thy sublime essence and by Thy decree. It is Thou who are in heaven God, and on earth God. It is Thou who wilt come to shine visibly (on earth) when Thou who willest it, as Thou hast caused Thy decree to shine (in heaven before the angels) under the image of the Most beautiful form’ (Adam); and in this form is the Spirit which gives knowledge, eloquence and free power...” Then he continues and concludes, “How comes it then that now I am arrested, imprisoned, exposed to death, to be placed on a gibbet, burnt, my ashes cast on the waves of the flood?”

Several persons that night asked Hallaj for a last farewell word of advice. To all he replied in the same strain: “Conquer thyself, or thyself will conquer thee.”

In the morning of Tuesday, 24 Dhu’l Qa’ada 309 (=March 26, 922 A.D.) Hallaj was led out on to the esplanade in front of the Prefecture. Abu al Hasan al Holwani writes, “He was brought out of prison tied and chained, but he smiled, and I said to him: ‘Master, whence comes to thee this joyful mood?’ ‘From the caresses of His beauty,’ he replied, ‘seeing they attract those who desire Union.’ Then he recited:

‘He who invites me, lest he seem to wrong me,

Has caused me to drink from the cup himself drank from,

E’en as a host who entertains a guest.

Then, when the cup has passed along the board,

Forth he brings the mat of execution and the sword.

Thus it befalls him who dares to drink

Wine with the Lion in torrid Tammuz.’”

Ibrahim ibn Fatik, Hallaj’s servant, relates as follows:

“When Husain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was brought to be crucified, and saw the cross and the nails, he laughed so greatly and violently that tears flowed from his eyes. Then he turned to the people, and seeing Shibli among them said to him, ‘O Abu Bakr, hast thou thy prayer-carpet with thee?’ Shibli answered, ‘Yes, O Sheikh!’ Hallaj bade him spread it out, which he did. Then Hallaj stepped forward and prayed two rak’as on it, and I was near to him. In the first rak’a he recited the Fatiha and a verse of the Qur’an, namely:

“‘Every soul shall taste of death. Ye shall be given your full rewards on the day of Resurrection, and whoso shall be put far from Hell-fire and caused to enter Paradise, happy is he! The present life is but the goods of vanity.’

In the second rak’a he recited the Fatiha and a verse of the Qur’an, namely:

“‘We will surely try thee with somewhat of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and lives and fruits. And bring a message of joy unto the patients who say, when an affliction befalls them, “Lo, we belong to God, and to Him shall we return.” Those are they upon whom are blessing from their Lord and mercy, and those are in the right way.’

“When when he had finished, he uttered a prayer of which I remember only these words:

“‘...O Lord, I beseech Thee to make me thankful for the grace Thou hast bestowed upon me in concealing from the eyes of other men what Thou hast revealed to me of the splendors of Thy radiant countenance which is without a form, and in making it lawful for me to behold the mysteries of Thy inmost conscience which Thou hast made unlawful for other men. And these Thy servants who are gathered to slay me, in zeal for Thy religion and in desire to win Thy favor, pardon them and have mercy upon them; for verily if Thou hadst revealed to them that which Thou hast revealed to me, they would not have done what they have done; and if Thou hadst hidden from me that which Thou hast hidden from them, I should not have suffered this tribulation. Glory unto Thee in whatsoever Thou doest, and glory unto Thee in whatsoever Thou willest!’

“Then he remained silent for a time, communing with his Lord, until Abu’l-Harith, the executioner, went and smote him on the cheek, breaking his nose with the blow, so that the blood gushed out.”

A great crowd collected at the place of execution. The official account says that he was beaten with a thousand stripes, well-counted, without his crying “Enough” or “Ah. He only said to the Prefect of police after the six hundredth blow, “Let me speak to you, I have some good news to tell you, which would be as good for the Khalifa as the capture of Constantinople.” “They have already warned me,” said the Prefect, “that you would say that and much more besides, but we cannot interrupt the blows which you must receive.” Another version records that after each blow Hallaj said the word “Ahad, Ahad,” i.e., God is One.

The blows having been administered, they cut off one hand, then a foot, then the other hand, then the other foot, crosswise. After that he was crucified. One who stood by the gibbet reports that he prayed as follows: “O my God, I come to enter now into the home of my desires that I may contemplate Thy marvels! My God, since Thou showest Thy love even to those who do Thee wrong, how is it that Thou dost not show it to this one who is suffering wrong in Thee?”

As evening fell the authority came from the Khalifa to take Hallaj down from the cross, but the officer of the royal guard said it was late and they had better leave him till the morrow. When the morning came they took him down, and led him forward to behead him. At this point he cried with a loud voice, “The goal of the ecstatic is the Only One alone by Himself.” Then he recited from the Qur’an, “Those who believe not in the last Hour are carried away by it in haste, but those who believe in it await it in reverent fear, for they know that it is the Truth.” These were his last words. He was then beheaded; his body was wrapped in a mat of rushes, on which was poured petrol, and burnt. Finally his ashes were carried aloft to a minaret so that the winds might scatter them. Or, according to the official version, they were thrown into the Tigris. The head remained exposed for two days on the bridge in Baghdad, after which it was carried to Khorasan, where it was paraded from province to province.

My present statute (hukm) is that a veil separates me from my own “self”. This veil precedes vision (kashf) for me; for, when the moment of vision approaches, the qualifying attributes are annihilated. “I” am separated then from my self; “I” am the simple subject of the verb, no longer my self; my present “I” is no longer me. I am a metaphor (tajawuz), not a generic kinship (tajanus), an apparition (zuhur) on an infusion (hulul) in a material receptacle (haykal juthmani). My survival is not a return to pre-eternity; it is a reality that is imperceptible to the senses and beyond the reach of analogies.

Ah! I or You? These are two Gods.

Far be it for You, far be it for You to assert that there are two.

There is only Your One Ipseity in my nothingness, forever.

This is my all before All, deceptive, two-faced.

Where then is Your essence, apart from me, that I may see clearly....

But already my essence is made manifest to the point that there is no more space.

And where is Your Face, object of my doubled gaze

In the depths of the heart or in the depths of the eye?

Between me and You (there lingers) an “it is I” which torments me....

So lift with Your I this I from between us both.

Here am I, here am I, O my secret, O my trust!

Here am I, here am I, O my hope, O my meaning!

I call to You...no, it is You who calls me to Yourself.

How could I say “it is You”! – if You had not whispered to me “it is I”?

O essence of the essence of my existence, - O aim of my intent,

O You who make me speak, O You, my utterances, - You, my winks!

O All of my all,- O my hearing and my sight,

O my assembling, my composition and my parts!

O All of my all, - the all of all things, equivocal enigma,

It is the all of Your all that I obscure in wanting to express You!

I am not I and I am not He; then who am I and who is He?

Not “and I” for He is not I and not “not I” for He is not He

If it is He at whom and by whom we gaze

There is nothing in existence but us, I and He and He and He

Thus whoever is for us, with us, of us is as he who is for Him, with Him, of Him

I am the One I desire and the One I desire is me

There is nothing in the mirror except us two

Distracted is the singer who sings “we are two souls infused in one body”

And he who makes distinctions between us only proves his “shirk”*

I do not call upon Him and I do not remember Him for my calling and my remembrance are directed towards Myself.

*[i.e. declares that there is more than One (God)]

“People perform Hajj, for me the Hajj is to my guest.”

“I have refused the worship due to God, and that refusal was for me a duty, though it were a sin for Muslims.”

The qadi gave his formal opinion (fatwa) that al-Hallaj deserved death as a heretic. This opinion he stated in writing and all the other doctors present signed it, though one did so only under protest. Al-Hallaj objected:

You cannot flog me, nor can you shed my blood. It is not lawful for you to take hold of a pretext against me so as to authorise the shedding of my blood. My belief is in Islam, it is based on the Sunna. I admit the pre-eminence of the four rightly directed Khalifs, and the rest of the Prophet’s companions, may the grace of God be on them. I have composed books on the Sunna which are to be found at the book-sellers. So on God, on God I call, may He protect my blood.

Hear I am, I am, my secret, my bliss

Here I am, here I am, my goal, my thought

I call you, no you call me, how can

I call you if you do not whisper to me?

O eye of my being's eye, O end of my wish

O my speech and my terms and my stammering

O all of my all, O my hearing, O vision

O my entirety, my portions and my members

O all of my all, all of my all as riddle

And all of all of you obscures my meaning

O you in whom my soul hangs as it fades

Humbly, and my foes aid me in my sorrow

I weep my grief in parting from my home

Humbly, and my foes aid me in my sorrow

I approach as fear estranges me and love

Shakes me as I hide in my heart's recesses

What shall I do with a lover I love

My lord! it is my illness to weary doctors

They said: Cure it by him, I said:

O folk, do I cure ills with my illness?

My love for my lord thinned, sickened me

How do I complain of my lord to my lord?

I gazed at him, my heart recognized him

And nothing betrayed it but my glances

Alas my soul for my soul, grieving me

By me for I am the root of my calamities

Like a drowning man whose hands wave

For help as he sinks in the ocean waves

No one knows what I experienced but

He who rests in my eye's little pupil

He knows what illness I experienced

In his deed that was my death and revival

O my last request and hope my host

O my soul's life O my religion and world

Say: I am your ransom O my ear and eye

Why this strife at a distance and afar?

If you have hid from my eye by a veil

The heart has watched you remote and far

For science skill, for faith progress

For wisdom and people proof must exist

Science is double, rejects, accepts

The oceans are two; navigable, dreadful

Time is two days: blamed and praised

Men are double: endowed and plundered

Hear in your heart what a friend says

Behold in your mind for wisdom is a gift

I climbed a peak without any feet

Its scaling was hard for others than I

I dived in a sea without setting foot

My soul waded in it, my heart wanted it

Its pebbles pearls no hand touched

But the mind's hand had plundered them

I drank its water without a mouth

Much water that mouths often drank from

For my soul of old thirsted for it

And my body felt it before creation

I am orphaned, the father I run to

Is absent while the heart and life last

Blindly seeing and wisely foolish

And my words if I wish are inverted

The masters know what I know and are

My brothers, I am one befriended by joy

They met each other at the aged source

Their sun arose and the time was setting

O place of sight for my glance

O place of happiness for my thought

O all complete all of which I

Love in art of me and yet wholly

One says you make me like one

Whose heart is in the bird's claws

Lost, worried, wild it flees

From one wasteland to another

It travels blindly, its ideas

Go as the lightning flashes gleam

Or like a dreamer's quick fancy

In the last light time of sleep

Running on the wave of thought's

Ocean grateful to the eternal power

Silence, deafness, thin speech

Knowledge, discovery, emaciation

Clay then fire then light

Coal then shadow then the sun

Rough then smooth then desert

River then ocean then dryness

Drunk then sober then love

Nearness then abundance then kindness

Gripping then loosing then erasing

Parting then joining then effacing

Taking then denying then pulling

Describing then revealing then clothing

Words for those for whom

This world is not worth a farthing

A voice behind the door but

Men's words nearby are in whispers

The last thing a slave attends to

As he reaches the goal is joy and self

Creation is slave to faith

The truth of truths is holiness

They were told and showed what was hid

Returning not home they were deceivers

When souls tell secrets they know

All that troubles their mind, beware!

He who betrays his slave or lord's secret

They do not trust with secrets in his life

They punish him for what he lets slip

In place of society they will put exile

The shun him and mistrust his nearness

When they see him digging up the secrets

One who reveals a secret and tells it

If like me a madman among the people

They are initiates made for secrecy

They do not suffer the one without shame

They accept no spy in their assembly

They do not like the veil to be lifted

They want no guests hateful to secrets

Beware of their pride in this, beware!

Have reverence for them in their place

For them in every grief while time lasts

I weep for you souls whose witness fades

As time passes meeting the past witness

I weep for you hearts that long showers

Of inspiration water with oceans of wisdom

I weep for your truth's tongue long sent

Its memory in fancy is as nothing at all

I weep for your proof that silences

Eloquent words and all rational speech

I weep for all your proofs of reason

That remain only as the rotting bones

I weep for all your love, herd habits

It was their camel when silently loaded

All these passed, no water or track

The passing of 'Ad and sad loss of Iram

Leaving a crowd running in confusion

Blinder than beasts, yes as blind as sheep

I guide my glance with wisdom's eye

With the purity of the lightest fancy

A gleam shining in my conscience

Finer than the thought of a mere whim

I dive in the wave of my mind's sea

Swimming in it like an arrow moves

My heart flies as my love's feather

Swooping on the wing of my decision

To one who if I am asked about him

I secretly mask and will not name

Until I pass all bounds and deserts

Of the proximity in which I wander

I look then in a watery surface

But do not cross my imagined limits

I come yielding to him at the end

Of a tether in my submission's hand

His love brands my heart with

Passion's brand, O what a brand!

My being's witness departs from me

In nearness until I forget my name

No more proof between me and truth

No explanation or signs of evidence

It shows a dawn of flaming truth

That blossoms with a power brightly

His proof is from him, to him, in him

The witness to truth not known by show

His proof is from him, by him, to him

We found it in the canon brought down

Do not deduce a creator from his work

You are those events wandering in time

This my being, my avowal, my belief

This unifies my unity and is my faith

This a word of folk lonely in him

Holding knowledge secretly and openly

This being of being existing in him

Generic sons, O my friends, O comrades!

I wonder at you and at me

O promise of my aspiration

You brought me near you

And so I thought you were me

I lost you in being

Until you ruined me in you

O my joy and my living

And my peace after my dying

I have no kindness but you

From hence my fear and my faith

O in gardens of meaning

All of artistry is contained

If I wanted anything

You would be every desire

Kill me O my trusted ones

In my dying is my living

My death is in my life

My life is in my death

Erasing my being for me

In the noblest generosity

My staying as I am now

Is the worst of calamities

My life wrongs my soul

Among the ruined traces

Destroy me and burn me

Among my perishing bones

When they pass my remains

Among the ruined graves

They find my love's secret

Among the remaining people

I am an aged sheikh

Among the highest degrees

Then I became a child

In the nurse's quarters

Living in a coffin tomb

Within the sterile lands

My mother bore her father

It was one of the wonders

My daughters after being

That became my own sisters

Not from time's action

Nor from deeds of adultery

Gather my parts together

From that shining body

Made of air then of fire

Then of the Furat's water

All sowed in a land

Whose earth is dead earth

You yield it to water

From the circling cups

Of wine-bearing girls

And the flowing streams

Then you complete seven

As the best plants grow

Islamic Responses

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Monday, July 16, 2012

Sayings of Mansur Al-Hallaj

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